Harold
Harold is ranked 988th among boys in 2024 (227 births). Its best rank was 12th, in 1915, 1917, 1920–1921.
- Rank in 2024
- #988down 67 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 2270.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 192414,149 births
- Best rank
- #12first in 1915
- Since 1880
- 554,046people given the name
The story in the numbers
551,398 boys have been named Harold in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1924, with 14,149 births — 1.2% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 227 births in 2024, against 14,149 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1933, and the 1920s alone account for 24%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 83 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,648 girls have also been given it, 0.48% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Harold | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,001 | |
| 1890s | 7,018 | |
| 1900s | 12,795 | |
| 1910s | 79,721 | |
| 1920s | 133,585 | |
| 1930s | 95,467 | |
| 1940s | 82,177 | |
| 1950s | 62,181 | |
| 1960s | 36,741 | |
| 1970s | 17,590 | |
| 1980s | 9,185 | |
| 1990s | 5,518 | |
| 2000s | 3,471 | |
| 2010s | 2,748 | |
| 2020s | 1,200 |
In 1924, its biggest year
Harold was the 13th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1924 were Robert, John, William, James and Charles. See all of 1924.
Names that rose and fell with Harold
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Maynardpeak 1922
- Merlepeak 1925
- Bufordpeak 1921
- Cletuspeak 1922
- Wilbertpeak 1922
- Merrillpeak 1926
- Odispeak 1921
- Elwinpeak 1923
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.